Stage Fright
by JMarines150
Summary: Just before the curtain falls, Haruka kisses Chihaya. Things get complicated, and then Haruka doesn't show up to work one day. What's going on? One-shot that contains Yuri. Rating is just to be on the safe side.


Stage Fright – An Idolm sters Story

Pairings: ChiHaru

Hey everyone! I know I said I was planning on getting out the next chapter for "Stolen Fulfillment" right about now, but the writer's block is strong. While waiting to get over it, I had some inspiration, which resulted in this story. I hope you like it. :)

Disclaimers: I really don't own Idolmasters. I promise.

* * *

The heat of the stage lights was hot on Kisaragi Chihaya's face. She breathed heavily as they closed on the end of the performance's second encore. Her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breathe, and her muscles ached. Her left hand was extended above her head, clasping Amami Haruka's right. The two girls were so close that she could feel the sides of the brunette's breasts against her own.

The curtain began its slow descent, and the two girls moved their hands down to be clasped in between them as they sang the last note of the song. As they did they turned to face each other, no space separating them. The cheering of the fans was almost as loud as it had ever been. Even so, their voices rang out throughout the massive stadium and the girl's fought to hold their duet till the last moment. The fabric that would separate them from the crowd seemed to take forever to fall.

As it reached the half-way point, Chihaya got the surprise of a lifetime. Haruka suddenly crossed the distance between them, her lips planting a kiss on the bluenette's lips a second before the curtain would block them from view. The bluenette reacted purely out of instinct, the hand holding her mike wrapping around the shorter girl's waist, pulling her in to deepen the kiss.

The lights turned off and the curtain finally reached the stage. In the darkness, Haruka pulled away, spinning out of the taller girl's grasp. The bluenette reached out to stop her, and she caught hold of something, something soft, but Haruka escaped.

It was then that Chihaya noticed the sound. The crowd was going absolutely insane. Chants of "Haruka, Chihaya" roared throughout the entire building. The volume coming from their fans throats' was enough that the bluenette could feel the reverberations in her leg.

The backstage lights came on, and the bluenette's eyes instantly started searching for her friend. Vaguely, she realized that she was holding onto the brunette's ribbon. Haruka was nowhere to be found, and she took a step forward. Hands pulled at her, stopping her from finding the brunette. She fought them at first, but she was still in too much shock to resist as strongly as she might have otherwise.

The rest of the night passed as a blur, nothing but her being herded from place to place. She remembered being driven through back alleys, and changing vehicles multiple times. Eventually she wound up back at her apartment, where she sat down heavily on her couch.

Suddenly, she found her cell phone in her hands, and it was ringing. She answered it slowly, her mind still trying to catch up to the events of the last hour or so.

"Hey Chi-chan!" Chihaya would recognize that voice anywhere.

Her friend's voice snapped the bluenette's mind back to the present. "Haruka, what was that?"

"Oh, nothing much," the sound of the brunette giggling cascaded through the phone's speaker. The top-notch device was insufficient, and Chihaya found herself longing to listen to the real thing. "I guess I got caught up in the moment. I figured it would give the fans a little something more. They really wanted a third encore, but I knew it wasn't in the schedule. So… I guess I figured I'd… Do what I did…" Haruka trailed off as she muttered the last few words.

Chihaya was confused when the words caused her heart to feel like it had sunk into her stomach. "Oh," she paused, trying to think of the right thing to say. "That's… Okay, I guess. I wish…" _I wish you would say that it meant something._ Chihaya tried to say the words running through her thoughts, but she couldn't muster the nerve. "I wish you'd have told me that you might do that."

"I would have, if I'd have known in advance," the brunette's voice was quaky.

Chihaya knew that her friend was trying to say something more, but didn't know what words she could give to push either of them over the edge. Into saying the words that they'd been dancing around for months. "Haruka… I think we shou-"

"Well, I'm pretty tired," Haruka interrupted, sounding panicked. "I'm going to go ahead and go to sleep. See you tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah… Good night."

"Good night."

The phone clicked as the brunette hung up and Chihaya sighed as she set her phone on the table next to her. "I love you," she whispered.

* * *

The only thing anyone wanted to talk about the next day was the stunt that the energetic brunette had pulled. They both had to watch video of their kiss in front of everyone at least a few dozen times. They appeared together on a sudden interview by a prominent news station. Every time anyone asked, Haruka repeated what she'd said before. That she'd been "caught up in the moment", or that she'd wanted to "give the fans a little something more". She said that the kiss didn't mean anything at all.

Chihaya awkwardly followed the brunette's lead, saying as little as she could. They made their scheduled appearances together as normal, but the pressure was so much more intense than normal. Public forums and fansites exploded, multiple versions of their kiss caught on camera on almost all of them. Everyone watched their every move, waiting for the kiss to happen again. Only a week later, Chihaya overheard Haruka ask the Producer to only put them together when absolutely necessary. Apparently the nerves were bad enough for the brunette that she'd been throwing up before and after some events.

It hurt Chihaya more than she'd admit, to hear her friend ask to be kept away from her. Even out of the public's eye, Haruka avoided her. The bluenette tried her hardest to put up a brave face, but she too, could only take so much. The other members of 765 productions did their best to help both girls through the situation, but no one truly knew what to say.

Nights were more difficult. She'd watch and re-watch the video of Haruka kissing her, clutching the ribbon she taken at the concert to her chest. Her heart throbbed as she tried to find the courage to talk to the brunette, but to no avail. Oddly enough, her pain helped her performances. She tried to pour her heart and soul into her work, but she could never manage to make herself completely numb when darkness fell. More often than not, she woke to tear-stained pillows, and a stabbing pain in her chest.

* * *

One day, she came into the office, only to hear that Haruka hadn't shown to a major interview the night before. Chihaya rushed to the Producer, who told her that the cheerful girl's cell was going straight to voicemail. A dreadful suspicion began to build up inside of her, but she went through with work as though nothing was wrong. At the end of the day, when still no one had heard for her, panic overrode her senses.

She would never be able to remember what she did next, what tantrums she threw, what she'd said, or even how she'd gotten there, but she ended up alone in front of Haruka's door. It briefly ran through her mind that this was a secure apartment complex, but it wasn't important. What was important was that she was here now.

She held tightly to the ribbon, her fists trembling. _It wasn't right_ , she thought to herself. _Why did Haruka kiss me? Then avoid me and put me through so much pain?_

Her hand raised and she knocked on the door. Silence greeted her. She knocked again, but nothing happened. She started pounding the door, whaling on it with her fists. Still, nothing. She flailed with all of her strength, kicking at the offending portal as well, hammering until she was spent. She fell to her knees, staring incredulously at the door. Vaguely, she was aware that someone had come by, but no one was around anymore.

"Haruka!" She cried out at the top of her lungs. The empty hallway absorbed the sound, leaving her feeling more alone than ever. "Haruka! You can't do this to me! Don't make me fall in love with you, and then abandon me! It's not fair!" Her voice rose to a shrill finish. Her voice, which she had trained and worked on for countless hours, finally failed her too. Yet, just as it had before, the lonely hallway uncaringly swallowed her words.

Feeling absolute solitude wrap around her, Chihaya let her head fall. Tears dropped onto her hands, onto the ribbon she held. She realized that her knuckles were split, and she would likely have trouble explaining her bruises the next day. "Haruka…" she whispered.

There was the sound of a click, and she couldn't believe her ears. She lifted her head, and through the moisture in her eyes, she saw the doorknob begin to turn. Slowly, ever so slowly, the door opened. Behind it stood Haruka and the sight of her flooded Chihaya with so many complicated emotions that she couldn't sort through them all.

Haruka looked awful. Lines of not-yet-dried tears streaked her face. Her hair was in disarray, standing up in odd places. Her nose was red, and those gorgeous green eyes were puffy. To Chihaya, she had never looked so beautiful.

"Do you mean it?" The brunette asked softly. "Do you really love me?" Her voice was weak and frail, and Chihaya clasped onto the idea that her answer meant the world to her friend.

"I've never meant anything as much as I mean this: Haruka, I love you." Chihaya's breath caught as she waited for the other girl to respond.

The brunette's lips quivered as she fought to hold back some kind of overwhelming emotion. Her emerald eyes grew misty, and she pulled both of her hands to her chest. Averting her gaze, Haruka finally responded, "I love you, too."

Before the last word had left her mouth, Chihaya jumped up from her knees and pulled Haruka into her arms, a surge of strength coursing through her body. "I love you so much…"

Their arms wrapped around each other, and they both laughed and cried. They rocked back and forth as they held each other. Haruka apologized with every breath, and the bluenette assured the shorter girl that it was okay. All was better, now that the truth was out. Now that they were together again.

Building security stopped by briefly, but after Haruka explained the situation, they were alone once again. They realized that they were still in the doorway, and the brunette invited Chihaya inside.

"I'm so sorry," Haruka apologized for the hundredth time. "I just couldn't… Lie to anyone anymore. Let alone to you. And I got the worst stage fright of my life, those few performances we had together after that."

Chihaya smiled lightly, playing with the brunette's fingers as they held their hands between them on a couch. "Why'd you tell me it was just for the fans? That was… Really difficult to try and accept."

The brunette blushed and looked down. "What was I going to do? I panicked, and I didn't know what to do. I should have just told you the truth."

"Yes, you should have." Silence stretched out between them for a minute. "Please promise me right here and now that you'll always do so in the future."

"I will!" Haruka jumped on the chance, her green eyes shining brightly. "I'll never lie to you again!"

Chihaya chuckled. "I'll settle for you just being honest to the best of your ability. Which I'll pledge to do the same."

"Thank you, Chi-chan! I love you." The shorter girl seemed to notice for the first time how she looked. "Would you mind excusing me for a moment? It's a bit embarrassing, looking like this. I'd like to take a bath." Then she noticed Chihaya's knuckles. "Wait! When did this happen?"

It was the bluenette's turn to blush. "When I… Tried to force my way in, I guess…"

Haruka bent down and kissed the back of the taller girl's hands. "We'll need to take care of this first." She led Chihaya into the kitchen, where, after scrounging around for a moment, she located a first-aid kit. "I have to keep one in here for myself," she admitted bashfully.

They went quiet while Haruka cleaned the bluenette's scrapes and applied bandages to her wounds. Everytime she'd finish placing a bandage, she'd lay a kiss over it. Shortly after, the shorter girl smiled proudly. "There. That should do it for the moment. Now, you can go ahead and do whatever in the living room while I clean up. I'll try to hurry."

Chihaya went back to the couch they'd been on before, while Haruka went into her bedroom. The silence was overbearing, and she began to get the feeling that what had just happened couldn't be real. There's no way that her best friend was now her girlfriend. It just couldn't work that way. Loneliness over came her, and she found herself wandering around the large apartment. Eventually she drifted over to the brunette's bedroom.

She could hear the sound of flowing water, and despite herself, she tried the door to the bedroom. To her surprise, it was unlocked. She opened the door as quietly as she could, stepping into the room on silent feet. The room was decorated in bright pinks and soft greens. Reds and blues could also be found, but they were sparse, fan and in between. At the end of the bed, which was covered in pink silk, lay Haruka's folded garments.

The sound of running water filled Chihaya's mind, and she drifted over to the bathroom door. She tested the door and found it also to be unlocked. Taking a deep breath, the bluenette undressed, laying her clothes carefully on the foot of Haruka's bed, next to the other girl's clothes. Chihaya went back to the bathroom door and opened slowly.

Haruka must have been in a hurry, because the washing station part of the bathroom looked to be barely wet. Inside a wide, deep, and luxurious-looking bath, the glorious site of Haruka awaited Chihaya's eyes. The brunette turned at the sight of the door opening, and quickly tried covering herself up with her hands as she shut off the bath water.

"Chi-chan?! What are you doing?" Her voice was high with embarrassment.

The taller girl blushed to be seen naked, but strode as confidently as she could into the room. "I don't want to be apart from you. As much as possible, I want to be by your side." She paused, barely an arm's length away from the other girl. "Please?" She asked, her heart in her throat.

The shock in Haruka's eyes quickly faded into compassion, and then into lust. She nodded, and that was all the prompt that Chihaya needed.

* * *

And scene! Whew, I wonder what they're going to be doing for the rest of the night? ;) Seriously though, this was all that I had "seen" for this story when it popped into my head. I'm not opposed to writing sex scenes when the story calls for it, but it just didn't feel appropriate. The image of Haruka kissing Chihaya before the curtain fell came to me, oh, about four or five hours ago (as of when I posted this), and it just wouldn't leave. So I just started writing and the story kinda told itself. I really liked writing it, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it. Please leave a review, so long as it's not a toxic one. I love getting feedback, it's the best!


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